In a just world I would have already written about "Baby I Need Your Lovin'". The same goes for "Ask the Lonely", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song", "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Standing in the Shadows of Love". I should've just recently finished a glowing review of "Bernadette" and I should've been looking forward to getting to "Walk Away Renee" in a couple months from now. (I'm tempted to mention a few more but let's not go nuts here)
Yes, the rumours are true: I love The Four Tops. If you ask me — which you didn't — they're the greatest vocal pop group of all time and it's really not close. The rough baritone of Levi Stubs has been rightly praised over the years but it often easy to overlook their magnificent harmonies as well. Not to take anything away from them but silky smooth groups like The Miracles and The Temptations lack the Tops' distinctiveness. No one sounded like them at the time and no one has managed to sound like them in the years since.
To his credit, Johnny Rivers would probably admit that he doesn't sound like them either. He certainly doesn't sound like he's trying to on his hit version of "Baby I Need Your Lovin'". Even with his delightfully chewy voice, Rivers is at a disadvantage since there's only one of him. Thus, we encounter the first major knock against his rendition: welcome to backing singer hell. While Levi Stubbs tears into (see what I did there, fellow Billy Bragg fans?) pleading with how much he needs her (his?) lovin', the remaining Tops — Obie Benson, Duke Fakir and Lawrence Payton — back him ably with the right mixture of empathy and distance. Motown backing vocalist trio The Andantes add to the lush sound without getting in the way. The same cannot be said for The Blossoms on the Rivers' version — and it isn't even their fault really. They're all Rivers has for support and since he already sounds bored out of his mind, what was Darlene Love's group to do?
The big problem here is it's all so incredibly bland. While Rivers and The Blossoms are out of their depth with a pop classic, the musical structure and production sucked whatever life remained from it. Not that I would ever attempt this experiment but it's how I would imagine an AI cover of "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" might sound. Up to this point, Rivers had managed to carve out a respectable if unspectacular singing career. His seemingly abrupt shift from proto-swamp rock to mainstream balladeering might have seems like a classic sell out move but he got away with it at first. Previous Canadian chart topper "Poor Side of Town" had been a bold step forward but this is has me pining for the dirty southern rock of old. Not only was a fantastic Four Tops song too much for him but he was too good for something so trite.
Score: 3
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Wait...What?
Cannonball Adderley? Again??? Of all the jazz greats, he's the one I'm the least interested in and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" doesn't raise him any in my esteem. I mean, Joe Zwainul's tune is typically cool and catchy and he plays a mean organ but the Cannon's alto sax is barely present. Then again, why should I complain if a jazz soloist I don't think much of is only minimally involved in something? That said, I do care. I care very much that the comparatively bland Adderley enjoyed chart success that was denied to Miles Davis or Bud Powell or even Duke Ellington (how the addictive earworm "Limbo Jazz" was never a hit I'll never know). Nice at it is to see some jazz make it on to the pop charts in a year like 1967, I just wish it wasn't as underwhelming a listen as the Cannonball's overrated "classic" Somethin' Else.
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